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Greg Sherman Press Conference Quotes

Quotes From General Manager Greg Sherman's Meeting With The Media Following The Team Matching An Offer Sheet For Ryan O'Reilly

Thursday, 02.28.2013 / 11:54 PM
Colorado Avalanche

Colorado Avalanche General Manager and Executive Vice President Greg Sherman addressed the media on Feb. 28, 2013 in regards to the team matching an offer sheet for forward Ryan O’Reilly. Here is the full transcript from his press conference.

OPENING STATEMENT

“Good evening. As most of you already know, we have matched the offer that we have received today for Ryan O’Reilly. This was a goal of ours from the onset, to get Ryan signed, and that goal was completed today. With the support of our ownership, not only today but throughout this entire process, we have come to terms with Ryan O’Reilly and now we move forward as a hockey club.”

ON IF O’REILLY WILL BE ON THE UPCOMING ROAD TRIP

“We are in the process right now of working on those details to get him into Denver, get him to his physical, see our doctor with hopes of him joining us on the trip, yes.”

ON IF O’REILLY IS IN DENVER

“He is not in town, no.”

ON O’REILLY BEING UNDER CONTRACT

“When you go back to the end of last season, starting with the signing of our own unrestricted free agents, our own restricted free agents and then obviously during the July 1 free agent signing period, you look at the number of signings we had throughout the offseason, Ryan was certainly part of that group that that was our intention to get done, that was our goal. That goal has never changed. Sometimes the process takes a little longer than you would expect or would want, but that’s ultimately what we ended up with today, he is staying with the Colorado Avalanche.”

ON IF THE TEAM THOUGHT ABOUT NOT MATCHING THE OFFER SHEET

“I can tell you given the time frame that we moved on this that it is pretty clear what our objective was in regards to that question. Meeting with [Governor] Josh [Kroenke] and [Owner] Stan [Kroenke], we moved very quickly and efficiently today to go ahead and make the decision to match the offer.”

ON THE CALGARY FLAMES OFFERING O’REILLY

“It’s their right in the CBA (collective bargaining agreement). If that’s the way they want to do their business, that’s their right.”

ON PLAYING THE CALGARY FLAMES TODAY

“The fact that we received the offer today on a day of a game, and against them, that’s their prerogative, that’s their business.”

ON IF HE HAS SPOKEN WITH O’REILLY

“I just did as a matter of fact, yes.”

ON O’REILLY’S REACTION WHEN HE SPOKE WITH HIM

“He sounded excited, ready to go.”

ON IF HIS HAND WAS FORCED TO MATCH THE OFFER

“It goes back to the rights and how we function in this CBA that we operate under. Calgary made a decision to use the rights that they had to put forth an offer sheet. We also have our rights in the CBA to match that. Ultimately, that is the business that we are in. How you want to characterize it? I’ll leave that up to you, but we are happy to have him under contract.”

ON IF IT’S A RELIEF FOR THE ORGANIZATION TO HAVE O’REILLY BACK

“It was our goal from day one. In that regard, to get Ryan back in an Avalanche uniform and get him back on the ice as soon as possible. We are certainly pleased to have that be the case.”

ON IF HE THOUGHT THE ORGANIZATION WAS BEING CHALLENGED

“I think the best way that I can answer that is that I have a job to do to run this franchise so if you want to term it as a challenge or how people want to come after us, I’ll leave that up to you, but we run this franchise the way that I believe is best for our organization, for our ownership, and for our fans. If you view it as a challenge, that’s your opinion. I see it as the business that we are in. It’s within their rights to put that offer sheet forward, and it’s our right to match it and that’s what we’ve done.”

ON O’REILLY BEING A CORNERSTONE FOR THE ORGANIZATION

“I think I’ve said it all along throughout the process the last several years that we’ve done a job of identifying our core and we acted very quickly this past summer to sign those core players and Ryan was part of that. We made efforts throughout the summer to get Ryan under contract, so yes. I do see Ryan as part of our core, no question.”

ON O’REILLY’S FITNESS LEVEL

“It is a little bit of an unknown, but knowing Ryan’s history and how he takes care of himself, I’m not overly concerned.”

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